1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a method for enhancing recovery of data from a database, and in particular to accelerating generation of search arguments leading to recovery of specific data from the database. Still more particularly, the invention relates to methods generating a dynamic dialog between a data processing machine used to access the database and a user by providing the user access to results of a search as those results are obtained by the data processing machine and accepting refinement of search arguments conceived by the operator during the course of the search.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art teaches the programming of data processing systems for searching through information to retrieve particular pieces of data. An example of such a system is the LEXIS.TM. legal research system of Mead Data Central, Dayton, Ohio. Such prior art systems access information which has been organized into a database. A database consists of objects, i.e., discrete packets of related information, such as the text of an article. The data processing system recovers the object if the object meets certain criteria. In the example of an article, the criteria could be the presence of a certain series of words in the text. The object is identified to the user and the contents of the object are made available for the user's perusal.
Database searching allows a user to quickly recover collections of objects meeting virtually any criteria a user can compose. A problem with prior art systems has been that they return recovered objects only upon completion of a search. In other words, all objects in a database must be evaluated for conformance to the search criteria before the searcher can review the results. This can be time consuming. It can also present the user with a mass of material effectively as overwhelming as the original database. The user may discover upon completion of a search that the original search criteria were not effective in returning the desired data. This can occur because the operator is unsure of terminology, or because the user defined the criteria too narrowly, or because the user lacked clear understanding of just what was desired, or for a host of other reasons. Obtaining the desired data is hindered by the necessity of waiting for each level or iteration of a search to be completed before the search parameters can be modified, altered or replaced by reference to the search results for the prior parameters.
A conventional approach to searching information is a "search dialog" wherein a command is invoked from a graphical menu system, parameters are filled in a "pop-up window" and results are delivered to a window upon completion of the search. This approach does not fully exploit the capabilities of most data processing systems. Typically, many iterations of the search parameters are required to refine the criteria to solve the user's problem.